Thursday, February 4, 2010

Here's a look at the aftermath of what happens when a landlord (in the words of The Villager) seeks "the kind of higher rents and glitz that are killing what’s left of the small, independent stores and variety in the Village."

The above photo shows the inside of what was Left Bank Books, a warm, dark space recently packed with books and shelves. They just vacated this past weekend, moving to 8th Avenue.

Next door, shown below, are the hollowed-out remains of Lee's Laundry, a space formerly filled with red Chinese posters and calendars, and laundry. Lee said he was not offered a new lease after 30 years.

The wall between Lee's and Left Bank has been completely knocked down and the two spaces have been joined into one large space.

8 comments:

It is sad that book shops are vanishing but this is happening all over the country and while you may be able to blame Marc Jacobs for the cases in the West Village the real problem is that all of print media is dying and dying fast. In the very near future there will be no books, magazines or newspapers in print, everything will be online. In fact the only book shops left will be second hand ones.

People ought to realize that BOYCOTTS are very powerful weapons to dissuade corporate interlopers from displacing long-standing businesses.

Landlords can be as greedy as they want, but if they couldn't get those inflated rents (which, by the way, increase their assessed values, resulting in higher real estate taxes which they need higher rents to cover), they would leave well enough alone.

But these assholes are clearly blinded by greed. They will fully deserve the resulting empty storefronts and lack of rental income that will contribute to their losing their buildings through foreclosure.

Unfortunately, when long-term local businesses are displaced and can never return, WE all lose as well....

Two things: First, print media is slacking, but it's not DEAD. Online publishing cannot fully replace print media. The Internet is intangible and can be controlled by other outlets. You can hold a book, carry it, keep it, and it doesn't require technology to learn. It's a fool who thinks that there is no room for books in the world. Second, I've read that many west villagers are moving to the east village because they are sick of the whole SITC nonsense over there. I can't say I blame them. It's grittier on this side.

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"Jeremiah Moss does an excellent job of cataloging all that’s constantly being sacrificed to the god of rising rents." --Hugo Lindgren, New York Times Magazine

"No one takes stock of New York's changes with the same mixture of snark, sorrow, poeticism, and lyric wit as Jeremiah Moss... Even as the changes he's cataloging break our hearts a little, it's that kind of lovely, precise writing that makes Moss's blog essential reading." --Village Voice, Best of NY

“Jeremiah Moss…is the defender of all the undistinguished hunks of masonry that lend the streets their rhythm.” --Justin Davidson, New York Magazine

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